In the case of petitioner Nicolas Mondragon Gonzalez, he received a forty year sentence under the death enhancement in USSG § 2L1.1(b)(7)(D) based solely on but for causation for migrant deaths in a crash he did not directly cause, and this petition asks the Court to resolve the circuit split on the required causation standard and to enforce 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) 's command that punishment be just and no greater than necessary.

Does the death enhancement in USSG 2L 1.1(b)(7)(d) require proof of direct or proximate causation, as held by the Eighth and Ninth Circuits, or may it be imposed based only on but for causation, as held by the Fifth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits?

Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in holding that a forty-year sentence was substantively reasonable when the causal connection between the defendant 's conduct and the deaths was indirect, attenuated, and inconsistent with the statutory command that punishment be just and no greater than necessary?

Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in applying the death enhancement under USSG § 2L1.1(b)(7)(D) based on but-for causation for migrant deaths in a crash not directly caused by the defendant